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Thursday, 3 May 2012

Yes, kids, it's That Russian Brand, knocking my low-buy out of the way as casually violently as an ahjumma with ...actually nowhere in particular she needs to be.

My version of restraint consisted of buying only three of the six new shades released last Friday at zuneta, and due soon at beautyhabit for Americans. As usual, props to team zu for their awesome service -- I ordered on Saturday, received my shipping notification on Monday and my parcel landed on my Hong Kong doorstep on Wednesday.

Obligatory box porn -- actually only qualifying because of the GWP cream eyeshadow in Batiste Grayling (perfect timing, as I'd finished my beloved tube, swatched here). The new refills themselves are packaged sufficiently minimally to please a depotter, sandwiched between a thick paper insert inside a paper envelope. They made it to me safely, so no complaints here.

Each new single eyeshadow refill retails for £16 (actually £13.33 for non-EU customers) and contains 2g instead of the pots' 2.4g. The pan is also smaller, as a comparison between the new Bohemian Waxwing (L) and my depotted Abyssinian Catbird (R) shows:

The shadows are still made in Italy and are of the quality I've come to expect from RBR. However, the texture and finish of these new iridescents are, well, new, at least in my experience of previous RBR textures, sitting somewhere between the delicate holographic sheen of Fire-Tailed Sunbird and ultra-refined satin of Solstice Halcyon; although the three shades I chose also vary somewhat along that scale. All three are on the sheer side of the RBR average -- perhaps among the shades I didn't buy there's a buttery superstar like Abyssinian Catbird, Mysterious Tinamou or Angelic Cockatiels; I'll be hunting for swatches to find out.

The following swatch pictures are all taken in natural light without flash; the 'shade' (left-hand) pictures are more true-to-colour but those taken in full sun show some other nuances and convey a better idea of the textures.

Bohemian Waxwing, described as "iridescent bronzed champagne" hides a cool mauve-tinged dustiness-- I'd expected a light rich, warm metallic from the description but this "bronze" has such a cool patina it swatches more like a taupe with a mauvey-gold flash. See how the iridescence in Waxwing compares to the clearer pinkypeachy-gold of of Fire-Tailed Sunbird? Abyssinian Catbird is there to show how taupe Waxwing looks against a complex but unambiguously bronze shade.

Trumpeter Koel ("dark lead-grey with lilac-blue iridescence") I swatched by its lonesome, as I'd passed up the previous black/silver/dark grey RBR shades as being not quite right. Despite its scary speckled appearance in the pan picture above, this swatches perfectly smoothly with zero grit and pretty much matches the description. This is the most pigmented of the three shades I bought and appears more shimmery because of the distinctness of its shimmer and base shades -- I would call its effect lilac-on-blue.

Lilac Reef Curassow is described most simply as "pale lilac with iridescent effect" and it's the sheerest, simplest and driest of the shades I bought. Its iridescence is tonal and coupled with the scarcity and fineness of its shimmer, it swatches more like a demi-matte than a satin even. Under very strong direct sunlight, it's just about possible to separate its grey-blue base from its cool pink and white shimmer -- in all lights, the overall effect is still more lavender than lilac. It's so blue it makes the warmer lavender-grey of Addiction Concrete Jungle appear purple.

A ten-minute swatches-made-me-late-again FOTD, using all three shades together (not the most considered combination, but actually quite harmonious thanks to the mauviness in Waxwing.)

And just to confirm, as usual for RBR, these shadows lasted the entire day without smudging, fading or creasing, without a primer. It's over 30ºC here and about 99% humidity (seriously, check out the HK weather report D:) and here are flash pictures taken after 14 hours of running around indoors and out:

I wanted to see how it looked with a warmer lip -- this is Ellis Faas Glazed L306

13 comments:

Fascinating! I haven't received mine yet, but these are not what I was expecting. I'm glad to hear the quality is still there, despite the sheerness and inaccurate color descriptions by RBR. Thanks for swatching so quickly and sharing your great photos and thoughts!

As for hoping there would be a buttery shade like Catbird and the like in the other new shades, I'm afraid there isn't. =(

I have Umber Firefinch and Golden Rhea and neither meet the high standards set by Catbird. Umber Firefinch is smooth, but not as pigmented as I would have liked, nor is it iridescent IMO. Golden Rhea is exactly how you described the new iridescents in your collection. It's very pretty though and I'd say it's closer to being buttery than Umber Firefinch.

I've also seen swatches of the Olive shade and think it seems similar to Umber.

wow, kate you are so beautiful! I really like EF glazed lips L306 on you a lot! I was lemming lilac reef curassow and it does look pretty indeed! your EOTDs make me want everything you just put on *argh*

I love your eyeshadow/colour combos a lot, always nice to see what will be your next creation! <3

Kate, you know how many times my hubby (when he actually saw your posts) said: 'didn't you do something like that last week?' or 'look, she has similar clothes'. sometimes THIS is really odd, lol. I guess I found my buddy :P

How absolutely beautiful. I did not buy any of these becasue I was scared off by the continual use of the word "iridescent" but they do look more satiny on your skin. I die for Trumpeter blah blah and Lilac Reef Curassow. I better get on the wait list at beautyhabit.

wow, these are gorgeous colours & so perfect on you.Only what keeps on surprising me is how Guerlain Chamade looks so entirely different on your complexion than on mine: it's so much more vivid and intense on you!